Life
by la1991520
Summary: Testing


**A Preliminary Investigation of Agency in Heterogeneous Grouping Tasks: From the Perspective of Activity Theory**

Lillian, m021020020

 **Introduction**

In the current English teaching environment in Taiwan, grammar translation teaching is the most common way of teaching in senior high schools. However, this type of teaching provides rather less opportunities for students to participate and actively engage in English learning. According to Vygotsky (1978), the higher mental function should originate in social activity, people's learning is available when they are engaged with social activities. On the other hand, Lantolf &Thorne (2006) state that individual's social behavior is strongly connected with the functional activity systems. Language learning is not merely associated with language processing, but learners' active interaction with the social contexts. Given students' learning is largely socioculturally determined, and the change of learning environment would affect students' ways of learning. The present study attempts to investigate how the classroom grouping task would bring effects on students' styles of learning.

In Taiwan, more and more English teaching occasions apply grouping activity in their teaching, grouping activity is thus considered as a useful way to evoke students' learning interests. Previous research has invested much effort on exploring the influence of small groups. Such as in Storch's (2002) research, he focuses on analyzing the interaction in dyads and claims that the grouping could help students scaffold each other's performance in a collaborative or expert/novice pattern. Edstrom (2015) studies the patterns of students' triadic interaction and states that the collaborative task fosters students to build on each other's contribution and allow them to go beyond their individual abilities. However, relative less emphasis has been probe into how the grouping task causes the change of students' agency. In the present study, the heteogenoeous grouping task is viewed as a change of learning context which brings about the change of students' agency. The aim of the present study attempts to get better understanding of the relation between proficiency status and agency, and the change of students' agency under the classified grouping tasks. Two questions were addressed in the current study. The first question would look into how **the collaborative tasks** influence the agency of each group members? (Would the agency (autonomy, participation) of each member change during interacting with peers and the teacher?) The other question would explore how the **heterogeneous grouping** and the in-class interaction with the teacher influence students' agency? The present study investigates a grouping task conducted in an 10th graders' English class in Taiwan, and special attention would be paid to the influence of the grouping task on each group member with different language achievement. Edstrom (2015) considers that a different group size would result in a new collaborative pattern. Also, Li (2006) argues that students' negotiation with the target community is closely related to their novice status. Therefore, students' different English proficiency would be the index to observe the different extent of participation in relation to their status in their group, and the heterogeneous quaternity might indicate some other distinctive traits.

 **Literature Review**

Activity theory, originates from the sociocultural theory of Vygotsky, which argues that the development of human mind and acts are derived from the interaction with culturally constructed surroundings and shaped by the mediation of culturally constructed tools (Lantolf & Pavlenko, 2001). When it comes to second language learning, the emphasis will transfer from the acquisition of language forms to self-development and the mediation of relationship between self and others (Lantolf & Pavlenko, 2001). That is, language learning is not merely associated with language processing, but learners' active engagement of structuring their own learning patterns which could be connected with the notion agency.

According to van Lier (2008), agency could be defined as the individual's capacity to act intermentally or intramentally with the sociocultural circumstance and to become aware of one' own actions. On the other hand, Lantolf & Thorne (2006) expand the notion further. They (2006) suggest that agency could be regarded as learners' active engagement in structuring their own learning patterns and could be shaped via the individual's participation in activity. Thus, the learning patterns and the action learners taken under a learning context could be an access to observe learners' agency. They (2006) also consider that learners' motivation affects the way they act and then influences their learning strategies. Therefore, through examining the reason and the way of people's behaviors in a specific social community, we could unmask one's agency and thus imply the connection between agency and individual learning behaviors.

In van Lier's (2008) study ' _Agency in the Classroom_ ', some dichotomies related to agency are proposed and defined. In autonomy-dependence dichotomy, autonomy refers to learners' capacities of taking control over their own learning, and dependence refers to the learning behavior controlled by others. Mercer (2012) regards that agency should be not only concerned with observable behaviors, but also includes non-visible beliefs, thoughts, feelings, past experiences, future-oriented goals and expectations. Therefore, I argue that this dichotomy could be further associated with learners' active and passive learning attitude, their willingness of investing efforts in learning. That is, autonomic learners are those who are able to plan their learning actively and more willing to study without mediation from others. On the other hand, the dichotomy 'self-regulation/other-regulation' is defined as the ability to accomplish activities with or without assistance from others. These dichotomies are thought to be strongly relevant to learner's agency. Therefore, we might explore agency via analyzing those dichotomies and also probe into the change of agency through observing the variation of learners' attitude, reaction toward learning when the learning context was changed. In the present study, the heteogenoeous grouping task is viewed as a change of learning context which brings about the change of students' agency.

 **Data collection**

 **Participants**

A tenth grade English class was observed for three periods in two weeks. In this class, students were classified into four levels: A,B,C,D, from high to low, according to their English achievement in their school tests. Data being collected consists of two periods of observation of the class, and the questionnaire accompanied with opened-ended questionnaire for one group of students who presented their vocabulary task in the observed class.

 **The context of collaborative task**

The collaborative task was conducted between April 1 and April 30. During that period, the teacher assigned the vocabulary tasks for students to work with their peers and complete their assigned tasks for every English class. Given that every student were classified, students are divided into 10 groups and each group contains 4 students with different proficiency levels, A, B, C, D. Different labors were assigned according to their achievement status. And for every English class, the teacher would assign 5-10 vocabularies as homework. The higher achievement group member A would act like the leader of the group and was assigned the toughest work which was to translate the sample sentences of each vocabulary in the textbook. And analogically, group member B would need to find some extra knowledge in relation to the vocabulary which is viewed as an easier work to do. Member C would be in charge of finding out idioms or special usage of the assigned vocabulary. Member D would need to lead the whole class to read through each assigned word. All the groups require to check and to integrate their findings with their group members before the class. Students would voluntarily present their works and findings to the whole class in order to get extra points from the teacher. Conversely, if their performance couldn't reach the teacher's requirement, some points would be deducted. When they were presenting their findings, the teacher would give feedback or correction. During the English course, the teacher also asked questions and appointed a certain level of group member to answer the question corresponding to their achievements. During that period, the teacher had once exchanged student C and D's jobs to promote student D's participation in learning.

 **Result and Discussion**

In the language learning context, learner's agency is changeable and the variation of agency is closely related to the ongoing activity, and individuals' learning strategies and motives would be influenced by their past learning histories (Lantolf &Thorne, 2006). Given that the hierarchical classification of students' second language abilities in each group is pre-determined, the change of the agency in relation to their language proficiency would be clearly uncovered. Students' pre-grouping learning habits would be associated with their assigned role in the grouping task to define each student's prior learning pattern. The change of agency would be observed through comparing their self-reporting past study habits to the way they think about and deal with the grouping tasks.

In the following analysis, the four group members being observed were directly coded in A, B, C, D. Given the nature of heterogeneous grouping and the abundant mediation residing in group task, the group task provides a good circumstance to carry out the change of agency. Learners' active and passive learning attitude, their willingness of investing efforts in learning would be the indicators to observing learners' autonomy. Moreover, learners' reaction toward the interaction under the grouping task would be the gauge to examining learners' regulation. The change of agency was analyzed through comparing their prior learning habits to their reaction and thoughts under this grouping task based upon the questionnaire.

Students' prior learning habits were investigated in the first section of the questionnaire. Learners' prior autonomy were gauged via asking whether they are actively preview, study English before class or are passively driven by tests. The ways they choose to learn language via communicate with others or study without mediation from others would be taken as learners' different types of regulation for their learning.

 **The variation of Student A's agency**

Student A is the highest achievement member in this group, she reported that she is high autonomic student who always previews and actively plans her own learning before each class. She is also a self-regulated learner who used to study English on her own without any assistance except encountering some problems that can't be solved on her own. By then, she would ask other classmates for help.

After conducting the group task, she reported that she likes to discuss the group task with her group members and she became more willing to actively communicate with her group members. She considered that the grouping provides a good access for her to address more questions and the group discussion helps her know how to study English more skillfully and have deeper impression to what have been discussed in the class. And in questionnaire of student B, C, D, they reported that A is always willing to teach them and answer their questions. Under this grouping context, A participated and interacted more than any other group members. Comparing with her past learning habit, it could be found that the learning pattern has been changed from self-regulated to other-regulated. She helped others more and addressed questions actively to discuss with her group members. However, she considered that her learning autonomy is lowered due to the change of teaching mode. She cannot fully control her ways of learning, but need to conform to the pace of group vocabulary task which requires her to invest relatively more efforts on studying vocabulary. But in her data report, if she were allowed to choose the job, she would like to do student B's job. She considered that the job could learn more useful knowledge. From her reply, we could see her active learning attitude and the willingness to decide ways of learning in the future. From the questionnaire of students A, we could observe the change of agency under this group task and also her future autonomy through her active attitude toward planning her own learning.

 **The variation of Student B's agency**

Student B was in charge of finding out extra knowledge related to the assigned vocabulary. She reported that she used to study under the pressure of test and usually study on her own. Her past learning style is more dependent and controlled by the test and self-regulated. She would discuss with others only when she met some difficult problems which could not be solved independently. After the implement of group vocabulary task, she considered that the group task indeed increases the participation and investment of efforts. However, she didn't think that her learning habits varied. Though she was a member of the group, she tended to finish her work alone. When she was corrected by her group member, she passively accepted their comments. Although she reported that she is more willing to learn and ask questions during discussion time, she only took the discussion as a convenient way to ask some question which could not be solved without assistance. She didn't consider that the group task improves her English ability, because she still studied by herself. No other evidence shows her willingness of participating and discussing with group members. Therefore, her learning style still remains on self-regulation. On the other hand, she also stated that sometimes she didn't even engage in the English class. She thought that the vocabulary task wasted too much time on presenting the extra information which wouldn't be involved in the scope of midterm test. She also reported the antipathy of her studying pace being disturbed. It could be observed that student B preferred her prior learning style and attempted to reserve it. On the other hand, under this task context, she inevitably needed to prepare for the assigned job which is to find out the relevant knowledge about the vocabulary. Thus, the group task made her become more active to engage in language learning. The raising of the awareness of taking control over her learning and the active engagement of learning English clearly demonstrate the switch of learning strategy from dependent to autonomy.

 **The variation of Student C's agency**

Student C was in charge of finding out the way of using the vocabulary and some special phrases in the sample sentences. Her prior learning habit was similar to B who was rather passive on planning her own learning and tended to study English on her own. Only when encountering problems would she go for assistance from classmates, teachers and also check answers for herself. After conducting the group task, she often completed her work through discussing with group members and she participate more in class. Besides, she felt good while she got points for her group and participated more. She also tended to actively discuss with or learn from her group members, because she didn't want to be a drag in her group. Based on her reply, we could see the obvious difference of her learning pattern which switched from self-regulated to other-regulated. On the other hand, we could also found that she set a high value on contribution. She considered that the current job could contribute relatively less than other group members. Since her job would need to rely more on the help from student A or B according to the interview data with the teacher, nevertheless, what she could do for her group members is lesser and thus she felt unsatisfied with her performance. And she reported that if she could choose the job to take, she would select students D's job (to lead the reading of assigned vocabulary) which she felt easier and requires lesser help from her group members. Based upon her data, she values her contribution to the group and that motivated her to actively communicate with her group members more and invested more efforts in learning. Comparing to her past learning habit, the group task made her become more actively engage in learning rather than passively driven by test and that demonstrated the switch from dependent to autonomic learner.

 **The variation of Student D's agency**

Student D was in charge of leading the whole class to read the assigned vocabulary. Before the implement of grouping task, she used to be driven by test and study on her own. When she confronted with learning difficulties, she would either ask her classmate or just leave it there. She used to be a dependent and self-regulated learner. After the implement of group task, she enjoyed the task because she could also help her group members during discussion. She also considered that the group task also increases her in-class participation. And she stated that before the grouping, if she got any questions, she used to ignore it. But now, the group task provides a good access to deal with those learning difficulties with group members which evokes her willingness to learn English. It could be found that student D also switched from self-regulated to other-regulated learning.

Besides, student D had changed her job with student C which requires investing more efforts in studying and discussing with other group members. She reported that she only needed to ensure the pronunciation of the assigned vocabulary before her job was changed. However, after the job was exchanged, she would not only complete her job, but also preview again before the in-class presentation. Since she felt stressful when presenting on stage, she tended to spend more time and efforts to prepare and ensure the correctness of her pronunciation in order to refrain from giving wrong information and incurring bad effect on others. Also, sometimes when the teacher asked questions, she was willing to answer questions if she could answer them. She hoped she could contribute some point to her group. Her active engagement in learning could also be observed in her class performance, as shown in the conversion transcription below.

Transcription:

(Date: April, 17, 2015. Context: The teacher appointed level D students to answer a question in relation to the text comprehension.)

Teacher:她聽到那個婦人，他知道她懷了，他即將會有another four girls and one more boy，

Was she shocked? D回答

D: **(voluntarily raised her hands) (A:** **去搶** **![spoke at the same time]) Her husband, he~her husband were~**

Teacher: She and her husband-

Student D: She and her husband were shocked. (D spoke with the teacher at the same time)

Teacher: Yes, yes! 他跟她老公都很驚訝! Yes, I will be shocked, 我會受到驚嚇!

Moreover, she used to memorize vocabulary under the pressure of tests, but now she would follow the teaching progress to study English even though the group task had been terminated after the midterm. From her data, we could observe her active engagement in learning and the transition from passive learning attitude to positive attitude. It evidently show her learning pattern which varies from dependent to autonomic

 **Discussion**

Given students' negotiation with the target community is closely related to their novice status, thus, students' different English proficiency would be the index to observe the different extent of participation in relation to their status in their group.

By analyzing their attitude and feeling toward the group task, it could be observed that the change of learning context indeed influences students' agency. All the learners with different achievement became more actively engage in dealing with their learning. Though student B tended to preserve her own learning style, the group task did make her invest more effort in learning English. On the other hand, we could also found their transition from self-regulated to other-regulated learners. According to Vygotsky (1978), the potential development of learners is determined by problem-solving with others' assistance and collaboration. After conducting the group task, students' learning habits are found to be changed due to their actively discussing their group task with each others, except student B who tended to remain as a self-regulated learner. Overall, all the group members show an agreement on the growth of participation and investment in the learning. But here might raise a vague point on differentiating the test-driven learning and the task-driven learning. Though both seem alike to be a factor to control students' learning behavior, they are virtually different. Learning driven by tests is a passive learning style which wouldn't evoke further development on learners' autonomic learning like, preview or study without the pressure of test, actively discuss with classmate without tests. Nonetheless, for 'learning driven by task', though learners' change of learning style also depended on the change of learning context, all the participants showed an agreement that the group task motivates their aspiration for actively engaging in learning.

On the other hand, based upon the finding of students' change of agency, further inference could be made via examining students' patterns of status. The status comparison involves the relation between group members and their relation with their teacher. Damon and Phelps (1989) proposed patterns of dyadic interaction which used two indexes 'equality' and 'mutuality' to categorize the dyadic interaction into four types, collaborative, dominant/dominant relation, dominant/passive relation, and expert/novice relation. Equality means the extent of learners' control over a task, and mutuality refers to the degree of involvement with group members' contribution. students' participation of group task and would then be analyzed with their different proficiency status in order to see how their prior learning patterns and the classroom activity affect their agency.

(Self-regulated learners do not passively take in information but rather proactively develop their skills and strategies. )

Reference:

Edstrom, A. (2015). "Triads in the L2 classroom: Interaction patterns and engagement during a collaborative task." System 52(0): 26-37.

Lantolf, J. P., & Pavlenko, A.(2001). (S)econd (L)anguage (A)ctivity theory:Understanding second language learners as people. In M. P. B. B reen (Ed.), Learner contributions to language learning: New directions in research (pp. 141-158). Harlow, UK: Longman.

Lantolf, J. P., &Thorne, S. L. (2006). _Sociocultural Theory and the Genesis of Second Language Development_. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Li, Y. (2006). Negotiating knowledge contribution to multiple discourse communities: A doctoral student of computer science writing for publication. _Journal of second language writing_ , _15_ (3), 159-178.

Mercer, S. (2012). The complexity of learner agency. Apples – Journal of Applied Language Studies, 6(2), 41-59.

van Lier, L. (2008). Agency in the classroom. _Sociocultural theory and the teaching of second languages_ , _163_ , 186.

Storch, N. (2002). Patterns of Interaction in ESL Pair Work. _Language Learning_ , _52_ (1), 119-158.

According to Lantolf & Throne (2006), the social factors in Engestrom's diagram serve as a conceptual framework to show the connection between human activity and the larger social-cultural structures. And in Fujioka's (2014) research, she applied Engestrom's graphic representation of activity system to visualize participants' experience in a specific social community and regards that it would allow us to understand the multi-direction learning underlying subjects' interactions. Therefore, Engestrom's activity system will be used to present the among group members and between individual and the teacher. And that would be helpful for observing if any change of agency taking place during the process.

In addition, the notion 'initiative' refers to learners' voluntary initiation of verbal behavior and was related to the ability of deciding the significance and relevance of events to learners themselves.

Therefore, initiative would be extended further to involve learners' attitudes toward the grouping task and future-oriented goal.


End file.
